The Irish Socialist Republican Party was a small, but pivotal Irish political party founded in 1896 by James Connolly. Its aim was to establish an Irish workers' republic. The party split in 1904 following months of internal political rows.

Contents

Despite its small size (According to the ISRP historian Lynch, the party never had more than 80 members). Upon its founding one journalist commented that the party had more syllables then members.[2] The ISRP is regarded by many Irish historians as a party of seminal importance in the early history of Irish socialism and republicanism. It is often described as the first socialist and republican party in Ireland, and the first organisation to espouse the ideology of socialist republicanism on the island. During its lifespan it only had one really active branch, the Dublin one. There were several attempts to create branches in Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Naas, and even in northern England but they never came to much.[3] The party established links with feminist and revolutionary Maud Gonne who approved of the party.[4]

The party produced the first regular socialist paper in Ireland the Workers' Republic, ran candidates in local elections, represented Ireland at the Second International agitated over issues such as the Boer War and the 1798 commemorations. Politically the ISRP was before its time, putting the call for an independent "Republic" at the centre of its propaganda before Sinn Féin or others had done so.

A public meeting held by the party is described in Irish socialist playwright Sean O'Casey's autobiography Drums under the Window.

Connolly who was the full-time paid organiser for the party subsequently left Ireland for the United States in 1903 following internal conflict; in fact it seems to have been a combination of the petty infighting and his own poverty that caused Connolly to abandon Ireland (he returned in 1910). Connolly had clashed with the party's other leading light, E. W. Stewart, over trade union and electoral strategy. A small number of members around Stewart established an anti-Connolly micro organisation called the Irish Socialist Labour Party. In 1904, this merged with the remains of the IRSP to form the Socialist Party of Ireland.[5]